“You give them something to eat.”Luke 9:13
“…the feeding of others, whether it’s spiritual or physical food, is part of our core vocation as followers of Christ.”
This article’s title is from the story of Jesus feeding over five thousand people with just five loaves and two fish. The telling of that story is remarkably consistent between Luke’s, Mark’s, and Matthew’s gospels. All three have a large crowd gathered to hear Jesus (4000-5000 men plus women and children). All three have the disciples saying that Jesus should send the crowd away because they don’t have food to feed them. And all three have Jesus saying, “You give them something to eat.”
Jesus then took the little they had - five loaves and two fish - and fed the crowd, with plenty left over. In this story, Jesus is calling the disciples to feed people who are hungry and in need, even when it seems like there’s not enough to go around.
For us who share in communion each week, the feeding of others, whether it’s spiritual or physical food, is part of our core vocation as followers of Christ. But it’s hard to focus on our spiritual hunger if our physical hunger - and the fear it can bring - gnaws at us.
Right now, our country is facing a hunger crisis. As I write this, Congress is still deadlocked on the budget and health care, and the federal government is shut down. As a result, regular funding for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps) has been shut down as well.
Starting November 1, over 40 million people in our country will receive reduced food assistance or no food assistance at all. And the Administration has chosen to not spend the over-$5-billion it has in reserve for the SNAP program. This decision will cause hunger to greatly increase across our country in the coming weeks.
Who are the people that receive SNAP funds?
● In Michigan, 492,225 children benefit from SNAP funding.
● In Berrien County, 23,000 residents qualify for SNAP, or 15%
of the county’s population.
● Households receiving SNAP include those with children
(43%), with older adults (36%), and with a person with a
disability (51%).
● Over three-fourths of all households receiving SNAP have
someone earning an income.
Right now, food pantries and feeding programs across Berrien County are trying to figure out how they can help fill this huge gap in food access caused by the federal government shutdown and refusal to use its reserve fund to keep SNAP going. There is no way to completely cover that gap, but they are trying.
How can we help? Four things come to mind:
We can donate food. Please consider bringing food donations to Pilgrim as part of this month’s food drive (see the list of possible items to donate at the end of this article). All donations will go to St. Augustine’s Food Pantry in Benton Harbor. At the end of October, they served over 800 people in one evening, a record number for them.
We can advocate for SNAP funding to be restored. We can contact the Administration, as well as our Representative and Senators, asking them to use the SNAP reserve funds to feed people in need, to negotiate an end to the shutdown, and to restore regular SNAP funding. Here is a link to more advocacy information from the Christian organization, Bread for the World: https://bit.ly/42YqmZD
We can volunteer. I was on a call this week with food pantries around the county, as they tried to coordinate with each other to address the coming crisis in food insecurity. A common theme among all of them was the need for volunteers. Let me know if you’re interested, and I can get you connected.
We can pray and learn more about hunger in scripture and in our church’s tradition. Bread for the World also has some great prayer resources at its website: https://www.bread.org/pray/. And if you’d like to learn more about what our scriptures and tradition have to say about feeding people who are hungry, please talk to me, and I can put you in touch with some other resources.
We have no higher calling than to follow the lead of Jesus, who shared a meal with his disciples. We continue to imitate that meal each week in the Lord’s Supper. Feeding people - physically and spiritually - is what we’re called to do. Especially in times like these, Jesus still says to us, “You give them something to eat.”
Items to bring to Pilgrim as a donation for St. Augustine’s Pantry beginning Sunday, November 2 through Sunday, November 23:
● Any non-perishable food
○ canned vegetables or fruit, soups, pasta sauces, etc.
○ rice, pasta, boxed potatoes, etc.
● Toiletries like…
○ single toothbrushes or toothpaste
○ deodorant and bars of soap
